Gradually increasing an effect intensity?

Hi Everyone,
Made an account to try and get some advice on some effect problems I've been having.
I'm currently creating a found footage series and its getting to the editing stage at the moment. I was wondering if someone could give me some pointers on how to create a specific effect.
I'm working on video distortion (using things like the Data Glitch plugin, noise and audio distortion, not to mention brightness and contrast) and was wondering if there was a way to cause a video effect to increase in either a linear fashion (so for example, the video would get gradually brighter until it got to a set level) or in a jerky but still consistently increasing fashion (for example, it the brightness effect may shoot up from 35 to 50 in one frame but may decrease to 10 in the next, but would always be roughly increasing to a set level) without having to have a hundred copies of the video in the composition all with the effect increased by 1?
Another question too, is there any way to make a video jump backwards and forwards (either manually or randomized) minute distances (frames within the same second or two), hang on random/set frames, slow down and speed up at either random or set instances?
I know how to do a randomized effect (the wiggle command) but is there any other commands that would help me with these kind of effects?
Thank you.
Ark.

Last edited by Ark Is Watching; 06-18-2014 at 11:25 PM.
Reason: Spelling error...kinda

It's usually a good idea to say what software you are using, since there are many members here that cover the vast majority of editing apps, but answering telling you how to do something in Sony Vegas when you're using Premiere Pro (as an example) may be of little help.

Generally you should be able to keyframe effects so that an effects can be at a given level at one frame and then another level the next, or a few frames later, with the software interpolating the positions in between. To clarify, your effect could be set to '10' on frame 100 and '50' on frame 101, or it could be '10' on frame 100 and '50' on frame 110 with the software creating the required steps from '10' to '50' on frames 101 to 110 for you.

If you're in Adobe products (Premiere Pro & After Effects) these are turned on using the stopwatch button. Once keyframing is turned on you can change the values of the effect over time as required. In After Effects you can turn on auto keyframing so it remembers all changes and creates keyframes for you (dangerous if you don't know it's turned on). After Effects also has some great methods of smoothing the start / end of changes instead of them being abrupt.

On Apple products (FCPX & Motion) there is a + button that creates a keyframe for you and allows you to set a value on that frame. Motion has similar auto keyframing to After Effects.

Sorry I'm not familiar with Vegas so if that's what you're using then just let us know and I'm sure one of the many Vegas users here will be able to help you.

In terms of reversing clips, that's generally as easy as giving it a negative speed, possibly with a speed ramp to slow down, reverse and then speed up (do the opposite to go back to normal speed again), though realise that some frames may look jerky when you do that.

Hold frames, speeding up and slowing down are functions built in to most apps, so knowing which app you're using would help a lot since their specific implementations vary.

Having video frames jump (back or forward) tends to be done in plug-ins but you can also do it manually if you have time and patience. Again, without know the software you're using pointing to specific effects (which may already exist in your software) is tough.

Hi,
Sorry probably should have said, I'm using a combination of After effects CS6 (primarily for visual distortion) and Sony Vegas 12.0 (for some auxiliary effects and lining up the audio), while any audio editing I do is primarily done in Audacity (though If I can find a way to edit the audio sufficiently in Vegas or After effects, I'd be very grateful as lining it up is my biggest difficulty in its current format.

Thanks as well on the key frame advice too. that will be massively helpful in my project as its an effect I've been struggling with that for a while and Google searches have not helped.